His eyes dimmed by age
fade homeward through the humid monsoon night.
Now I can see him getting off the train
Like a word dropped from a long sentence.
~ Father Returning Home, by Dilip Chitre
Read by @mumbaipaused.bsky.social
#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem #IndianPoetry
How else do we return to ourselves but to fold
The page so it points to the good part
What we’ll always have is something we lost
~ Snow Theory, by Ocean Vuong
Read by Vish.
#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
~ Lost, by David Wagoner
Read by Atika Chohan.
#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem
Just a woman sitting on the cool floor
of a quiet house
with nobody to pick up after,
legs released from the oppressive knot of crossed ankles
~ Third Wave Feminism in India is Aai Eating a Whole Mango by Herself, by Nikita Deshpande
Read by @wordylocks.bsky.social
#PoetryInParks #IndianPoetry
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
~ One Art, by Elizabeth Bishop
Read by Garima Singh.
#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem
What Does Poetry Save You From?
Linda Pastan
From the pale silence of morning
and the din
of afternoon.
From the flight into darkness
of those
I continue to love.
Read by Amrita Gupta.
#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem
In the wide-open field
the stars rest on my shoulder,
the immense vista of silence
between the lines,
waits at the edge of the sleep,
~ Dyad, by Gopal Lahiri
Read by Menka Shivdasani.
#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem #IndianPoetry #NaturePoetry
When I Was Straight, by Julie Marie Wade
I did not love women as I do now.
I loved them with my eyes closed, my back turned.
I loved them silent, & startled, & shy.
Read by Jogitha.
#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem #QueerPoetry
I Don’t Know What Will Kill Us First: The Race War or What We’ve Done to the Earth, by Fatimah Asghar
so I count my hopes: the bumblebees
are making a comeback, one snug tight
in a purple flower I passed to get to you;
Read by @zigzackly.bsky.social
#PoetryInParks #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem
A child is not a poem,
a poem is not a child.
There is no either / or.
However.
~ Spelling, by Margaret Atwood
Read by Sampurna Chattarji.
#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem
I lie in the dark, listening to a pulse of sound,
letters in an unknown alphabet spelling out words
that come and go through a sorrowful labyrinth.
~ Sleeve, by Minnie Bruce Pratt
Read by @nandanky.bsky.social
#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem #QueerPoetry
Home, for now, smell of pine trees
the sky visits in mist.
I am always at the borders of whimsical sun-rain.
Seasons seep through leaky roofs and skylight.
After you left I thought I will lose language,
~Nighttime, by Soibam Haripriya
Read by Sukrity
#PoetryInParks #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem
![[Things you bring to the ocean at night], by Nayyirah Waheed](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:uozcmbnhwnh3hfr2y3eb7vwh/bafkreihxk6yaus2geo57gulr54dwrgetrwea5h7l5r222vlnt3vnd2c64m)
the clothes you wear on your mouth.
the warm smoke in your legs.
a quiet quilt.
~ [Things you bring to the ocean at night]
Nayyirah Waheed
Read by @yellowchiffon.bsky.social
#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem
evidence of homes buried
in different names
here
the years we never defined
here
the echoes we collected
in each other
here
~ Here, by Nathalie Handal
Read by @zigzackly.bsky.social
#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem
It sneaks in on a Tuesday,
You're in your teens, in class.
Nobody cares what you say.
You feel in shards of glass.
~ How Poetry Works, by @j-tkelly.bsky.social
#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem
And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It’s new.
~ The Orange, by Wendy Cope
Read by Mevish Memon.
#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem
if I had to take my leave
at midnight, I should rather
cleave it from the joint or seam
than make a scene
or bring you round.
There,
how does that sound?
~ Let Me Put It This Way, by Simon Armitage
Read by @zigzackly.bsky.social
#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem
अब रात घिरने लगी तो तूं मिला है
तूं भी उदास, चुप, शान्त और अडोल
मैं भी उदास, चुप, शान्त और अडोल
सिर्फ- दूर बहते समुन्द्र में तूफान है…..
~ एक मुलाक़ात, अमृता प्रीतम
Read by Sudheesh.
#poetryinparks #poem #Indianpoetry #Asianpoetry
When I didn't know how to live
I became my grandmother:
opening windows in the morning
early enough to see the light
sifting between the curtains
~ Hong Kong by Sue Zhao
Read by Vasudha.
#poetryinparks #poem #Asianpoetry
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes
~ God Says Yes To Me by Kaylin Haught
Read by Nandini Rao.
#poetryinparks #poem
This is what you get for begging to be
chosen: every god in the universe eyeing
you through the clouds like a hot wound
he can’t help but press.
~ the goddess tires of being holy by @vankhanna.bsky.social
Read by Atika Chohan.
#poetryinparks #poem #Indianpoetry
I just stir, stir, stir, waiting for the sugar to dissolve because what lives must blend for if not, then there’s no beauty of the madness.
~ L by Poornima Laxmeshwar
Read by Pooja Ugrani
#poetryinparks #poem #Indianpoetry
Staticky it resonates. Stickily it moans. Sturdily it propagates. Silently it roams. Be still, oh dream plastic of our very own image, oh nightmare plastic of our very own dawn.
~ A Plastic Theatre by @katieschaag.bsky.social
Read by Amrita Gupta.
#poetryinparks #poem
No one will know you tomorrow.
The shelling ended
only to start again within you.
~ The Shelling Ended by Najwan Darwish
Read by Tonella.
#poetryinparks #poem #Palestine #NajwanDarwish
सबसे ख़तरनाक वह आंख होती है
जो सबकुछ देखती हुई भी जमी बर्फ़ होती है
जिसकी नज़र दुनिया को मुहब्बत से चूमना भूल जाती है
जो चीज़ों से उठती अंधेपन की भाप पर ढुलक जाती है
जो रोज़मर्रा के क्रम को पीती हुई
एक लक्ष्यहीन दुहराव के उलटफेर में खो जाती है
~ सबसे ख़तरनाक, अवतार सिंह संधू (पाश)
Read by Kamisar RS.
#poetryinparks #poem #पाश #कविता
One day I cursed that mother-fucker God
He just laughed shamelessly.
My neighbor – a born-to-the pen Brahman- was shocked.
He looked at me with his castor-oil face and said,
“How can you say such things-
~ One day I cursed that mother-fucker God by Keshav Meshram
Read by Mevish M.
#poetryinparks
I think of peace. Peace that never was.
And when i am rid of my own agony of thought,
I think of me.
How i became the one i am today.
How i died.
How i loved the people who killed me.
~ I think by Ayaan Khan
Read by Uttam Ghosh.
#poetryinparks #poem #spokenpoetry
remind yourself who you are.
call your family.
gather your team.
get with your people.
lean on your ancestors.
do your work now.
do your work now.
~ remedial dimension survival plan, part 1 by Deepa Philips
Read by L.
#poetryinparks #poem
youtu.be/DQ3uPx1YpkA?...
I’m dreaming seditious dreams,
I’m singing a seditious song!
I’m loving my neighbours,
don’t care where they’re from—
let’s abolish all checkpoints
and borders…
as we sing a seditious song!
~ A Seditious Song! by Hamraaz
read by @zigzackly.bsky.social
#poetryinparks #poem
i snuck past her sleeping mother
climbed fences and crawled
through awning windows
prostrated onto her skin
as if it were velvetine janamaz
~ Stuck by Sanah Ahsan
read by L.
#poetryinparks #EidMubarak #Eidaladha #Pride #wlw
